Health officials in Nakasongola District are monitoring five people from the same family following the death of a child from the Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF).
The family who are residents of Kikoyiro village in Lwampanga sub-county are close contacts of a 12-year-old boy who succumbed to the viral disease. The primary six pupil was buried on Tuesday after a postmortem confirmed that he died of the disease.
The child presented with symptoms of high fever, headache, vomiting, and joint and back pain.
However, the family first took him to Health Centre II where he was treated as a malaria patient but symptoms persisted. He was referred to Nakasongola Military hospital and later to Kiwoko hospital where they also didn’t detect his illness.
According to Dr. Agaba Byamukama the Nakasongola District Health Officer, the boy was referred to Entebbe hospital where he died and when a postmortem was done, the results indicated that he succumbed to Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever.
Agaba said that health workers supervised the burial of the boy and they have since picked blood samples of five close family members which they took to the Uganda Virus Research Institute.
He adds that they have also identified health workers at Health Center II and Nakasongola Military Hospital who handled the victim to ensure they also test for the viral disease.
They have also contacted the district veterinary office to assess the cattle within the communities to establish whether they are not infected with the disease.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCF) is primarily transmitted to people from infected ticks and livestock animals.
However, human-to-human transmission can also occur resulting from close contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected persons. CCHF has a case fatality rate of 40 percent.